Kings of Durin's Folk

The Kings of Durin's Folk were those of the House of Durin who ruled as kings, even when in exile.

The kings were all descended from Durin the Deathless of the First Age; in fact, five of the kings after Durin I were held to be reincarnations of him by the Dwarves. No complete list of all kings is known. The table below shows the names of those Kings who have been recorded, or whose existence could be deduced. In the table all information was obtained from The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, "Durin’s Folk"[1] unless otherwise indicated. The " Realm(s) " column indicates which place or places that the kings dwelt during their reigns.

One of the seven Fathers of the Dwarves and founder of the Longbeards, Durin's folk. He ruled his people for centuries - so long, in fact, that he became known as the 'Durin the Deathless' - but eventually he died during the First Age. He discovered the caves of Khazad-dûm and began his reign there.

He led his people out of the dragon-infested north back to the Lonely Mountain, while his younger brother Grór led some part of their people further east, to settle in the Iron Hills. He had been King under the Mountain for more than 180 years when the great dragon Smaug descended on his kingdom and sacked it. He escaped the destruction with his son and grandson, and went wandering in the wild before settling in Dunland. Later, went to reclaim Khazad-dûm where he was murdered by Azog the Orc, a crime that provoked the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.

He avenged his father's death with the defeat of Azog's Orcs at the Battle of Azanulbizar. In the early part of his reign, he dwelt in Dunland, but he later moved northwest to the Ered Luin west of Eriador. Before his reign ended, he resolved to return to Erebor, but wandering in the wild he was captured in 2845[3] and died in the dungeons of the Necromancer.

He ruled as King in the Ered Luin for many years, but like his father before him he at last determined to return to his ancient home of Erebor. Accompanied by Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins, he led a troop of companions into the east, and against all hope recovered the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. After Smaug's death, the Battle of Five Armies was fought before Erebor, and Thorin was slain. The only remaining descendants of Thrór's line, Thorin's young nephews Fíli and Kíli, were also lost in the battle. So the descent of the Kingship passed to the line of Thrór's younger brother Grór, and specifically to Grór's grandson Dáin Ironfoot.

He was besieged in Erebor after the loss of his father, but when news reached the forces of Sauron that their master had been defeated, he was able to drive them back. With Thorin III, detailed records of the reigns of the Kings come to an end, but there is a record of just one of his descendants.

He was said to be the last of the House of Durin to rule over Durin's Folk. Durin's Bane had been destroyed in the War of the Ring, so that Khazad-dûm lay open for recovery by its ancient owners, and it is said that it was Durin VII who at last achieved this.

Durin I died before the end of the First Age, so that between his rule and that of Thorin III, the Kings of Durin's line ruled for a period of about 6,500 years. Given that the average length of a reign among the Longbeards seems to have been roughly a century, it can be deduced that there were probably about fifty Kings' names missing from this list.